Inspiration

Today I completed a new painting 1967 Swirl that will also be made into a relief print by Brent Bond at Santo Press. The painting is a combination of two patterns that meld The Sixties series with my Swirls series.

The idea was haphazardly generated in my sketchbook when I collaged both patterns on one page. I really liked how it worked and after mulling it over, decided to push it further.

I wanted the pattern to be a very “clean” image (unlike the above collage) knowing that I wanted to make a laser-cut relief print out of it. So, I bit the bullet, and made as precise an ink rendering as I could manage of a one-quarter section of the pattern.

I recently had an opportunity to visit my daughter and son-in-law in Pittsburgh.

Umm…

Perhaps I should be more honest about the real reason I went to Pittsburgh. I went there to see my new baby granddaughter! (Sorry, Emily and Michael!) She is also the reason I have taken a small “vacation” from blogging and posting things on my FB artist page. I just had to hold that sweet little girl in my arms for as long as possible every single day!

Anyway, I arrived at the PIT airport close to dinnertime. And because it was on our way home, we decided to stop in Carnegie (a Pittsburgh neighborhood) to eat at Papa J’s Ristorante, a favorite place of ours for some yummy Italian food. (Just thinking about their fried zucchini strips with marinara and lemon has me salivating into my keyboard).

We had a little time to spare before dinner, so we strolled around the neighboring area. I am really glad I had my camera with me ( I always have a camera with me) because Carnegie is a treasure trove of uber cool grit and grunge just waiting to be photographed.

I am a sucker for any sort of urban scene; the more grunge, graffiti, grit and grime the better! I fell in love with that sort of thing while living in Center City Philadelphia. Anything crumbling, decrepit, cracked, peeling or rusty leaves me weak in the knees. And let me just say this for the record, downtown Carnegie, PA has all that in spades! Here is just a small sampling of close to 50 photographs I managed to snap in about 15 minutes of wandering around the streets of Carnegie. I must go back soon. In fact, my next trip is already booked.

FYI: If you want see what I am up to on a regular basis check out my photos on Instagram.

Another Tuesday spent in the print studio at Mesa and I was able to see (and capture) a few more wonderful chalk abstractions. They appear on a cement wall in the courtyard outside the print studio just for me (I am not kidding–I doubt anyone else notices them!) Last week’s rain created some interesting nuances; there were drips and smudges in the chalk which, to my mind, made them even more interesting. To me these wall drawings exemplify the Japanese aesthetic of wabi wabi as theyembrace the qualities of impermanence, transience and imperfection.

According to Richard A. Powell, wabi sabi acknowledges “three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.” I love that concept and can easily apply it to life, art and beauty.

I also like this quote from Leonard Koren’s book Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, Stone Bridge Press (a book I highly recommend) about how one can achieve wabi sabi in their work: “Pare down to the essence but don’t remove the poetry.”

I keep wishing I could paint or draw something to resemble these chalk drawings. But I guess I will have to settle for capturing their transient beauty with my digital camera.